The airline last month announced a record pre-tax loss of £401m. Photograph: AFP/Adrian Dennis

Unions at British Airways have reacted angrily to a request by chief executive Willie Walsh that its 40,000 staff should work without pay for a month.

The airline, which is burning through cash at the rate of £3m per day, outlined the offer in its in-house publication, British Airways News, coupling it with the warning that the company faced a "fight for survival" in recent weeks.

"Colleagues are being urged to help the airline's cash-saving drive by signing up for unpaid leave or unpaid work," it reads. "People will be able to opt for blocks of unpaid leave or unpaid work, with salary deductions spread over three to six months, wherever possible."

BA chief executive Willie Walsh and his chief financial officer, Keith Williams, attempted to lead by example last month after announcing a record pre-tax loss of £401m by waiving their wages for July. However, the carrier faces a tougher task in convincing its staff to accept reductions in pay and conditions, due to a history of industrial relations disputes at the business.

BA's biggest union, Unite, gave the request short shrift. "Willie Walsh can afford to work for nothing, our members can't," said a Unite spokesman. The GMB union, which represents thousands of ground-handling staff, said Walsh would have to take a permanent pay cut first. "Until the BA executives accept permanent change to their remuneration and bonus awards then I would find it increasingly difficult to assume that most staff would take this request seriously," said Mick Rix, the GMB's national officer for aviation.

One BA staff member said: "Most of us work because we have to, not because we have so much money that we can do it without needing a salary."

BA has set a deadline of 24 June for staff to volunteer to work without pay.

The company is currently negotiating pay deals and job reductions with its ground handlers, check-in staff, pilots and cabin crew, who have been told that the airline needs to settle discussions by the end of the month. It is also seeking 2,000 voluntary redundancies from 14,000 cabin crew. However, talks with one section of the workforce appear to have gone well. A deal with BA's 3,000 pilots could be announced as soon as this week, including a small number of voluntary departures.

The article in BA News, headlined 'Action time', said unpaid work would be tantamount to accepting a cut in pay – which Walsh is keen to negotiate across the airline.

"The new unpaid work option means people can contribute to the cash-saving effort by coming to work while effectively volunteering for a small cut in base pay." Repeating the "survival" mantra, Walsh added that he was looking for "every single part of the company" to get involved.

"It really counts. We face a fight for survival. These are the toughest trading conditions we have ever seen and there simply are no green shoots. Our survival depends on everyone contributing to changes that permanently remove costs from every part of the business," said Walsh, who has also outlined the request for unpaid work in a letter sent to each staff member.

Under the terms of the work-for-no-pay scheme, airline employees can forgo their wages for between one and four weeks. BA is also asking staff to consider temporary or permanent part-time work arrangements, and unpaid leave of between one week and a year. A BA spokesman said staff who signed up for unpaid work would receive no preferential treatment as the airline goes through its latest bout of restructuring. "Because it is voluntary, there is no suggestion of preferential treatment," he said.

The BA boss, who earned the moniker "slasher Walsh" while running Irish flag-carrier Aer Lingus, has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies at the airline. Asked last week if compulsory cuts were possible, he said: "We will take whatever steps are necessary to see the business through this crisis. We are working together and, I would say, generally constructively so far. But we have significant challenges that must be addressed."

About this article

Union anger as BA asks staff to work for free

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 09.43 EDT on Tuesday 16 June 2009.
It was last modified at 08.30 EDT on Wednesday 11 June 2014.
It was first published at 05.31 EDT on Tuesday 16 June 2009.